The present invention relates to a system for controlling a window operator. It relates on the one hand to a control device for a widow operator and on the other hand to a process for controlling a window operator. The invention relates solely to electric window operators.
Systems for controlling window operators known at present comprise a mechanism adapted to raise and lower a window as well as an electric motor driving this mechanism. The electric motor is controlled by a rocking button having two positions. This rocking button controls the window operator in the manual mode and in the automatic mode. In the manual mode, a pressure is maintained on the rocking button, in one or the other of the positions which it can take, until the desired position of the window is achieved.
In the automatic mode, two principles are generally used. Each of these principles relates to a technically different device but controlled each time by a rocking button with two positions. According to a first principle, an impulse of short duration on the rocking button controls the complete opening and closing of the window. According to another principle, using a double switch, for each position of the rocking button, a stronger force on this button permits selecting the automatic mode.
These two principles have drawbacks. In the first principle, an action on the pushbutton seeking, in the manual mode, to adjust the position of the window, can be interpreted by the control system or the window operator as an instruction in the automatic control mode. For the second principle, the quantity of effort to be exerted to carry out an action in the manual mode or in the automatic mode is not obvious for all users.
It should also be noted that for the two principles described above, the automatic mode does not permit having access to an intermediate position but solely to entirely open or entirely close positions of the window.
The present invention thus has for its object to provide a system for controlling a window operator, permitting having access more easily to the automatic mode and to the manual mode. Preferably, this system will permit, in the automatic mode, access to intermediate open positions. It will also preferably be more user friendly and ergonomic than the present systems.
To this end, the device which it provides is a control device for a window operator or the like, comprising a control means permitting controlling the opening and closing of an associated window. According to the invention, the control means has three separate control zones.
The present invention relates more particularly to electric window operators but can also relate to an electrically opening roof for example.
The fact of providing three separate control zones permits facilitating access to the manual and automatic modes. One or several zones can be reserved for the use of one of these modes. There can also be provided a zone permitting choosing an operation mode, automatic or manual, whilst the other zones thus permit controlling the raising and lowering of the corresponding window (or the like, which is to say for example opening and closing an openable roof).
To offer the greatest comfort of use and greatest flexibility of use, it can be provided that one control zone permits continuous control in the manner of a cursor. This embodiment is also ergonomic.
In a preferred embodiment of the control device, the control means is preferably constituted by a button sensitive to tactile control. In this embodiment, the sensitive button comprises for example two conductive zones reacting to the pressure of a finger of a user as well as a resistive zone, disposed between the two conductive zones, and reacting both to a push and also to a movement of a finger of a user.
In the case in which the control device comprises a button sensitive to tactile control, this latter preferably integrates, on a same support, control means of a separate device of the corresponding window opener. This control thus includes also a control device to carry out adjustment of the rearview mirrors.
To facilitate xe2x80x9cblindxe2x80x9d marking of the control device according to the invention, which is to say so that the user need not look, above all but not only when control is tactile, it can be provided that the control means has at at least one of its ends a raised flange. Tactile references (notches, groves, asperities, etc) can, as a supplement or replacement, be disposed on the control means itself.
For better ergonomics of the control device, the control zones are preferably aligned on a surface incurved on the arc of a circle or the like. Thus, the finger of a user can move over the three control regions without the corresponding palm of a hand having to move.
The present invention also relates to a control process for an electric window operator or the like with the help of a control circuit as described above.
According to this process, in the automatic mode, when the corresponding window has been entirely opened or closed, a push on a predetermined control zone causes the movement of the window into the position in which it was before its complete opening or closing.
This process thus permits providing an automatic mode with an intermediate position of the corresponding window (or opening roof for example). There is thus provided a function which is not present in any automotive vehicle sold at present.
This control process of an electric window operator or the like, according to the invention, in the case in which the control device comprises a control zone permitting a continuous control, preferably provides that an action on the control zone permitting continuous control, is used to carry out a manual adjustment of the position of the corresponding window whilst an action on the two other control zones of the control device is used to carry out an automatic adjustment of the position of this window.